EFFECTS OF PARENTAL INCARCERATION ON CHILDREN

Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children

Table of Contents

Intro/History of the problem3

Short Term & Long Term Effects on children5

Short-term Effects5

Long-term Effects6

Impact of Parental Incarceration on Families and Communities9

Conclusion/Solution to the Problem10

Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children

Intro/History of the problem

Who is incarcerated and how numerous of those incarcerated are parents? According to latest approximates (Jeremy Travis, 2004), almost 3.6 million parents are under some pattern of correctional supervision, encompassing parole. Of these parents, nearly 1.1 million are incarcerated in government, state, or localized jails. These parents have an approximated 2.3 million children. Alarmingly, the rate of parental incarceration has gone up harshly in the last decade. In 1991, there were 452,500 parents in state and government jails, with 936,500 secondary children. By 2000, the number of parents in jails had almost increase two-fold to 737,400, and the number of young children influenced increased by over a third to 1,531,500 (Jeremy Travis, 2004). Although the unconditional figures have expanded, although, the percentage of state and government prisoners with secondary young children has not altered over this time period. In 1991, 57% of prisoners had secondary children; in 2000, 56% were in the identical situation. Moreover, the boost in parents who became prisoners (63%) was alike to the rate of development for non-parental prisoners (69%) — a finding that proposes that being a parent is not inevitably a shielding component in decreasing the possibilities of incarceration.

Gender of parent is a foremost component in patterns of incarceration; fathers account for 90% of incarcerated parents. However, the number of mothers in jail increased at a much quicker rate than the number of incarcerated fathers over the ten years 1991-2000. There was an 87% boost for mothers, but only a 61% boost for fathers. Not amazingly, in outlook of their unequal rates of incarceration, the parents' ethnicity affairs, too. As anticipated, in both state and government jails, there are more African American parents (47% and 49% in state and government jails respectively) than either Hispanic parents (19% and 30%) or white non-Hispanic parents (29% and 22%). Stating this racial disparity in periods of minor-age young children, almost 7% of African American young children, 3% of Hispanic young children, and 1% of white young children of the total community of young children in the United States had an incarcerated parent (Jeremy Travis, 2004).

In periods of age, 58% of young children with incarcerated parents are under 10 years of age, with 8 years being the signify age. Nearly half (48%) of the parents in state amenities and over a third in government jails (38%) were not ever married; 25-28% were separated or separated. Only 23% of state inmate parents and 36% of government inmate parents were married. In periods of learning, most did not have a high school diploma (7% in state prison; 6% in government prison), but almost 30% had got a GED. Only 13% of state inmate parents described any school learning, but 25% of government inmate parents described some school ...